As normal at this time of year i do a yearly report on what we have been doing and on the fishing in general on the Algarve.

Freshwater fishing report for 2016 - I have completed the stocking of one of our private waters near Portimao and it now has the best mixed fishing in Portugal! The Barbel are of special interest with fish over 10lbs.

My friend has just been over fishing this water for 2 weeks and averaged 8 barbel per day, plus lots of other fish. It is now my quiet season for clients so I will be out 4 days per week catching more big fish to move to our bigger private lake, with a special interest in moving big barbel that go to 20lbs! This big lake has depths to over 50ft, but has big beds of weeds and lots of reeds and the barbel will thrive in there and breed for sure.

The BBC tv have just been over making a program on this water which you can see around June, this will show you just how nice this water is and with temperatures of 22c on January 17th, made a good film.

Gary Spencer has been over for his 3rd trip this year, he is a very experienced all round angler so its nice to know that I must be doing something right with clients like him and the BBC paying me to guide them.

Black bass fishing has been great on out private waters and i now have a nice boat with electric motor that i use to take clients there.

Sea fishing - The Marlin came very early this year again 1st seen of Tavira in July they stayed around till nearly November which is very late.The fish moved out of range for 2 weeks around end of August due to cold sea but came back in large numbers with catches of up to 15 Marlin a day reported, mainly white but a few very big blues.Some very big tuna have been taken over 500lbs and only this week in january I have a report of a monster Tuna seen jumping close to the shore,lots of smaller Tuna taken. Dorado -some very nice fish taken we nearly took the Algarve record with bigger fish seen.

Sharks - a great white was taken in a net only a few miles from our fishing area and my mates out Marlin fishing reported a great white circled the boat 6 times having a very close look at them!!!We had monster Hammerheads look at our tuna lures and had vast numbers of smaller blue sharks.Bottom fishing has been good with lots of red and golden snappers ,some big fish lost which have bitten off 45lb line and one rod bust-we still plan a night trip out after Swordfish if any are interested.

If you are out here in the Algarve or might be coming out and fancy some of this action fishing for any or all of these species get in touch and see what is available and can be bookedContact Us here

Start of the year found me continuing catching carp and barbel which I have safely moved to 1 of our private syndicate waters. We now have over 300 carp and 100 barbel moved to their new home - these fish have settled in nicely and are appearing in recent catches!

Chris has set a new Portuguese carp record with a nice fish of 54lb 8oz, this fish had put on 6lb since another angler had it last season, unfortunately 1 of our other 50lb fish was found dead last week, she will be missed as we have all had her out a few times over the years and seeing a fish we know so well die is a bit gut wrenching.

My barbel fishing is doing really well and I can confidently promote barbel fishing holidays, our best day saw +50 fish for 4 anglers from a new venue .

The quality of the barbel fishing we now have access to is evident from this image of one taken recently.

Our shark fishing started off incredibly well, in fact at mid season we were averaging 8 fishper trip, but things slowed down towards the end. Our bottom fishing has been really nice with red snappers to nearly 40lbs, big congers and lots of smaller fish on light tackle which is easy to use here as we have very little tide, a 2 oz lead is all we need.

The giant tuna turned up again, we had them jumping all around the boat one day big fish 400lb+. Best we know about landed was nearly 500lb taken on a marlin lure.

Marlin fishing looked like it was going to be good, but cold north winds drove them out and only a few were taken, lets hope this summer will see higher water temps and the return of white and blue Marlin and my favorite the Mako shark!

If you are out here in the Algarve or might be coming out and fancy some of this action fishing for any or all of these species get in touch and see what is available and can be bookedContact Us here

This year my personal fishing has been severely restricted due to the purchase of a old house on the Algarve which I am restoring. But I have still been able to get out with my clients and get in a few trips with friends.

Freshwater Fishing

We have not broken the Portuguese carp record again this year, but have come very close, we did catch the big fish again, but she had a bad abscess and had lost 5lbs my friend Tom treated this and its nice to report that she has been recaptured and put most of the weight back on and another fish from this water is putting weight on fast and is possibly over the record now.

My barbel fishing has taken off big time so watch this space. Hideaway lakes have closed for good so again we have no day ticket waters on the Algarve. Our private syndicate waters are the jewels in the Algarve crown, the big lake has produced fish to 26lbs and the dragon carp have come out at 20lbs, these are fantastic fighters! We are into a big stocking program there and are adding some very special fish, not saying what or how big they are, but there are going to be some very happy anglers in the coming season.... One of our smaller dams on the estate will be the best mixed fishery in portugal, I will do a report on this in May.

Sea Fishing

We have had a nice years shark fishing with fish to 150lbs, with lots of small sharks around. Sso for a bit of fun this year I have used a carp rod as an extra rod to target these small fish sharks from 10 to 30lbs! On a good carp rod this was great fun and had up to 8 on one day. The Marlin did not turn up this year in any numbers although one enterprising skipper traveled 50 miles out to sea from the east Algarve and found them and had 16 fish on one day. The big tuna were seen again, so this next year I plan to run one rod set up for them whilst shark fishing so lets see what happens.

I recently (April 2014) met up with John in Silves for an eagerly-awaited daytime fishing trip to his private syndicate carp/bass lakes (I’ve known John for some time and previously joined him on carp/barbel fishing trips in Portugal). We chose to fish the larger 35 acre lake for 3-4 days . . . John selected a corner swim with overhanging trees suited to float and feeder fishing (using sweetcorn, his special feeder mix and scopex boilies). I selected a swim 50m further away fishing at medium range close to a concrete water tower in the lake with combi-blowback rigs and tutti-fruitti boilies.

Despite a mixture of torrential rain, wind, cloud and sun, (Terry was a bit unfortunate with the weather on his short trip although he did get the sun cream out a few times - then only a week later and it was 25c all week: John) we managed to catch 6 sizable hard fighting carp (around the 15lb mark), and we also lost several others. John assured me that this was a below average session probably due to the changeable weather, and there are larger carp in the lakes waiting to be caught. John also caught a bass and terrapin, and I managed to hit the water tower twice!

The coarse fishing season has now closed here in Portugal, so a quick final report until the new season in June.

Our syndicate members have been out after big carp this last month with good success. Chris from Lagos had the big one out at 50lb 15oz, this is the new mirror record for Portugal, so well done to Chris.

Next out were Tom and Bradley again they did well with 12 runs in a few days fish to 34lbs.

How to book your holiday:

If you wish to get more info on any of our trips then use our online booking einquiry page and tell us what type of fishing you want, how many will be coming, and when. We will then contact you to confirm your dates before you start booking flights and insurances etc. This gives us an opportunity to fine tune your trip and cater for your personal needs.

We look forward to hearing from you and organising a full holidy trip out to the Algarve or catering for you on a day out whilst out here on a family holiday.